Largest Python Ever Found in the Florida Everglades

[Weedygarden]

I wonder:
1. What was she eating?
2. How did they know how many eggs she had? (Did they kill her or x-ray)
3. Do they kill pythons when they find them? (I hope so)

https://qz.com/1589111/snake-hunter...-python-ever-found-in-the-florida-everglades/

Snake hunters capture the biggest python ever found in the Florida Everglades

Burmese pythons are not native to the swamps of the Florida Everglades. As transplants, however, they’re worryingly comfortable: they slither through marshy waterways, luxuriate in the balmy temperatures, and fill up on a steady supply of raccoons, opossums, and bobcats. Tens of thousands of these enormous snakes now thrive in the area, descended from former pets and escapees from a breeding facility destroyed by a hurricane in 1992.

The snakes decimate populations of rabbits, foxes, and other handy prey, do battle with native alligators, and breed like wildfire. The problem is big—but perhaps even bigger than experts had realized. Snake hunters this week captured the largest ever found in the area, according to a Guardian report: a pregnant female weighing 140 lbs (63.5 kg), measuring more than 17 ft long. The snake was found to be carrying 73 eggs, according to a Facebook post from her captors. (Though large, the snake is nowhere near the largest python ever recorded, a 25-ft leviathan tipping the scale at 350 lbs.)

To reduce the snake population, environmentalists have lately made use of a new ploy. Instead of killing male snakes, they instead put them to work, outfitting them with radio transmitters. These so-called “Judas snakes” then lead snake hunters directly to breeding females. “The team not only removes the invasive snakes,” Big Cypress Nature Preserve environmentalists wrote in a Facebook post, “but collects data for research, develop new removal tools and learn how the pythons are using the preserve.”

 

[Patchouli]

Yes, if they are found, they are eliminated.
Last year, maybe every year, not sure, they have a period of time where there's a python hunt in Florida. Focuses particularly in the Everglades I think, but a large part of that is a conservation area. I'm not sure what areas were cleared for hunting them.

I would think cutting the snake open will give a good count on how many eggs, destroying the eggs would be also included, I hope.
They eat mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and children.

 

[Terri9630]

1. What was she eating?

Everything that fit in her mouth!

 

[Weedygarden]

Yes, if they are found, they are eliminated.
Last year, maybe every year, not sure, they have a period of time where there's a python hunt in Florida. Focuses particularly in the Everglades I think, but a large part of that is a conservation area. I'm not sure what areas were cleared for hunting them.

I would think cutting the snake open will give a good count on how many eggs, destroying the eggs would be also included, I hope.
They eat mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and children.

I have read about the big hunts. Evidently pythons have a particular odor and there are people who can smell them before they see them.

 

[hiwall]

With all the issues caused by this exotic species Florida still does not really have open-season on these snakes other than on private land. What a stupid PC law.

 

[Weedygarden]

With all the issues caused by this exotic species Florida still does not really have open-season on these snakes other than on private land. What a stupid PC law.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-python-hunters-everglades-20180530-story.html

Hunters with shotguns to go after pythons in Everglades National Park

The roar of shotguns will sound in Everglades National Park, as the war intensifies against the Burmese pythons that have devastated the park’s wildlife.

The park announced Thursday that for the first time it will allow state-contracted python hunters to pursue the giant snakes within its boundaries. And for the first time, it will allow the use of firearms — shotguns only — to kill them.

Although the park already uses more than two dozen of its own volunteers to catch pythons, the new initiative will triple the maximum number of snake hunters from 40 to 120.

The decision follows years of resistance by the national park, where hunting is prohibited. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission previously had been rebuffed in attempts to get state-authorized python hunters to work within its boundaries.
“We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve realized that this is a significant problem that requires us to be open-minded and flexible in the way that we approach it,” said Pedro Ramos, superintendent of Everglades National Park.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, an enthusiastic hunter whose department includes the National Park Service, has pressed for more federal land to be opened up to hunting. During an October visit to the park, Zinke expressed interest in “finding ways to invite citizens that want to be part of the solution to come into the park, partner with us and help us tackle the problem,” Ramos said.

But Ramos said the new initiative to go after the pythons shouldn’t be considered a hunt, in the sense that hunters come on other land to kill deer or ducks.

“It’s important to note that this is not a hunt that we’re introducing in Everglades National Park,” he said. “We’re inviting people that are interested in helping us tackle this problem come into the park and help us remove as many of these animals as we can out of the landscape.”

A full-grown deer found inside a Burmese python in the Everglades (South Florida Water Management District)

“The population of mammals, small mammals in particular, in Everglades National Park, has essentially collapsed,” Ramos said. “We have not seen a marsh rabbit, for example, in years, and we attribute that to the presence of Burmese pythons in the park.
The decision follows years of resistance by the national park, where hunting is prohibited. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission previously had been rebuffed in attempts to get state-authorized python hunters to work within its boundaries.

“We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve realized that this is a significant problem that requires us to be open-minded and flexible in the way that we approach it,” said Pedro Ramos, superintendent of Everglades National Park.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, an enthusiastic hunter whose department includes the National Park Service, has pressed for more federal land to be opened up to hunting. During an October visit to the park, Zinke expressed interest in “finding ways to invite citizens that want to be part of the solution to come into the park, partner with us and help us tackle the problem,” Ramos said.

But Ramos said the new initiative to go after the pythons shouldn’t be considered a hunt, in the sense that hunters come on other land to kill deer or ducks.

“It’s important to note that this is not a hunt that we’re introducing in Everglades National Park,” he said. “We’re inviting people that are interested in helping us tackle this problem come into the park and help us remove as many of these animals as we can out of the landscape.”

“The population of mammals, small mammals in particular, in Everglades National Park, has essentially collapsed,” Ramos said. “We have not seen a marsh rabbit, for example, in years, and we attribute that to the presence of Burmese pythons in the park.

 

[VenomJockey]

And who knows what other "foreign" species are roaming aroun d the U. S. People bring them in as pets, legally or illegally, then when they realize these things are going to grow to 15 - 20 ft long, they take them out in the Everglades (or woods) and drop them off. Could be anything from Cobras to Mambas roaming around America, who knows!

 

[Weedygarden]

And who knows what other "foreign" species are roaming around the U. S. People bring them in as pets, legally or illegally, then when they realize these things are going to grow to 15 - 20 ft long, they take them out in the Everglades (or woods) and drop them off. Could be anything from Cobras to Mambas roaming around America, who knows!

Truth!

There are a number of fish and other aquatic species that are wreaking havoc on fish.

 

[CrackbottomLouis]

All I can think is how many belts I could make out of that thing.

 

[hiwall]

Just look at many millions of dollars of damage done every year from English Sparrows. The list of exotic invasive species released on purpose in the United States is very long.

 

[Weedygarden]

This is only a a dozen, but there are more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...to-stay/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9253fc137b26

The dirty dozen: 12 of the most destructive invasive animals in the United States

For some animals, there’s no such thing as a dog-eat-dog world. They rule.

Animals from around the world that stow away in airplanes, ships and the luggage of some smuggler become almost bulletproof when they make their way into the American wilderness as invasive species. Why? They’re new here, and they don’t have predators to keep them in check. Animals that should be afraid of a vicious predator aren’t. Invasive species eat like kings.

Living high on the hog, these marauders aren’t going anywhere. Unlike many native animals that are disappearing from North America — vaquita porpoises, monarch butterflies, bottlenose dolphin and such — invasive species are growing faster than wildlife and game officials can manage them. In many cases, authorities have given up any hope of eradicating them.

Here are 12 of the most destructive invasive plants and animals in the United States, a dirty dozen. If it’s on this list, there’s a good chance that a government official in an office somewhere is trying to think of ways to kill it.

Burmese pythons

Emerald ash borer

Nutria

European starling

Northern snakehead

Brown marmorated stink bug

Feral hogs

Lionfish

brown anolis lizards — on steroids. They’re muscular, fast and love eggs. They’re known to harass pets — some reports claim they have killed cats — and they invade homes. Tegus were brought to the United States as pets, and are still available for sale in some stores. They were released into the wild and have spread from the Florida Keys to the Florida Panhandle and are threatening to reach into southern Georgia. Like pythons, Florida officials have launched offensives designed to kill them. And also like pythons, those efforts have failed. There are now so many that Florida game officials have given up on the idea of eradicating them, and now only hope to manage the population.

Asian citrus psyllid

It’s a little farfetched, but this tiny bug could be the end of Florida orange juice. The Asian citrus psyllid carries a bacteria that goes by many names: huanglongbing, “yellow dragon disease” and “citrus greening.” But what people remember is that Florida orange growers, agriculturalists and academics compare it to cancer. Roots become deformed. Fruits drop from limbs prematurely and trees die. Half of all citrus trees in Florida, which provides 80 percent of the nation’s orange juice, are infected. The trees slowly die. Florida, which provides up to 80 percent of U.S. orange juice, has been hardest hit, but the psyllid and disease have been detected in Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and California, which provide most of the nation’s lemons. Psyllids were first detected outside Miami in 1998 and the bacteria was discovered near there in 2005. It spread to 31 other counties within two years.

Brown tree snake

Brown tree snakes are not in the contiguous United States. Be happy about that. Hundreds of thousands are in Guam, a U.S. territory, and are responsible for the decimation of birds there. Birds had no reason to fear an animal that didn’t exist until it was introduced accidentally in the 1950s. Brown tree snakes are so out of control that they’re known for causing power outages when they climb utility poles. Now that many of the birds are gone, the snakes have turned their attention to native lizards. Hawaii, 3,800 miles east of Guam, is on high alert to stop the poisonous, predatory snakes native to Australia and Indonesia.

 

[SheepDog]

Is there a reason you left out the Silver (or flying) carp?

 

[Weedygarden]

Is there a reason you left out the Silver (or flying) carp?

I just did a copy and paste and this is what was in the article. Maybe it is not in the top 12, or maybe the article is not accurate. I know that there are some really invasive carp out there.

 

[Caribou]

I always wanted to do a Carp Trap Shoot.

 

[Terri9630]

I always wanted to do a Carp Trap Shoot.

That could feed a lot of people.

 

[Weedygarden]

That could feed a lot of people.

So could that python!

 

[Meerkat]

So could that python!

Pythons could also start eating a lot of people. Do pet stores still sell the damn things?
Years ago in the paper neighbors kept smelling something bad, ended up being the man next door whos snake had partially eaten him .
When I was a kid we didn't have fire ants, just little black piss ants . Now no more piss ants just fire ants.
We get bit by those little terrorist at least a 100 times a year. A gang of em get on you then one gives the order and all sting you at same time.

 

[Weedygarden]

Pythons could also start eating a lot of people. Do pet stores still sell the damn things?
Years ago in the paper neighbors kept smelling something bad, ended up being the man next door whos snake had partially eaten him .
When I was a kid we didn't have fire ants, just little black piss ants . Now no more piss ants just fire ants.
We get bit by those little terrorist at least a 100 times a year. A gang of em get on you then one gives the order and all sting you at same time.

They probably are still selling those damned things. If they had asked me all those years ago if pythons should be allowed to be imported, I would have given them a big fat NO! It is good that I have no real importance in this world. I can think of some other things that have been approved that I would have said no to.

 

[Meerkat]

They probably are still selling those damned things. If they had asked me all those years ago if pythons should be allowed to be imported, I would have given them a big fat NO! It is good that I have no real importance in this world. I can think of some other things that have been approved that I would have said no to.

ME TOO! Looks like the lunatics have been ruining things for many years now.
They even changed the language for the things from predators to "exotic'. I don't kill local snakes unless we have to but these invaders never should have been in and I'd kill them.